Townsville Council inks deal with Macquarie

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Townsville City Council has slashed 40 percent from its annual communications bill simply by outsourcing.

The local government authority has awarded a two-year contract to Macquarie Corporate Telecommunications.

Townsville City mayor Ann Bunnell said the tender covers the supply of voice, data and mobile solutions based on a very competitive pricing strategy.

She said other bidders on the short list of four included Townsville Regional Telco and Telstra Countrywide.

In 2003/04 the council spent $688,000 on telco costs but Bunnell said this figure will drop by 40 percent to $278,000 in the first year.

"We are pleased to be able to allocate the expected savings to essential council projects designed to benefit the community," she said.

In addition to the competitive pricing, Bunnell said further savings will be made from implementing Macquarie's management tools that improve real-time control of telecommunications usage.

Macquarie Corporate Queensland state manager Gaven Nicholls, said the tools include FleetView, a Web-based reporting and mobile fleet management tool and VolumeControl, which monitors and controls voice cost and usage.

"Over the past five years Macquarie has delivered a competitive telecommunications environment to North Queensland from voice services to extending our national data network to Townsville and other regional centres," he said.

Nicholls said Macquarie has a regional office in Townsville which opened in 1999 specifically dedicated to central, western and northern Queensland.

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